Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Samsung Electronics Co. won a court
order rescinding a ban on U.S. sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1
tablet computer that’s part of a global dispute with Apple Inc.
for dominance of the mobile device market.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California,
issued the order today after a federal appeals court gave her
jurisdiction over the matter.

Koh had imposed the temporary sales ban in June, before a
patent-infringement trial between Apple and Samsung that ended
Aug. 24 with a $1.05 billion jury verdict for the iPhone and
iPad maker. The jury found that Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung
didn’t infringe a design patent that had been the basis for the
Tab 10.1 sales ban.

“The court agrees with Samsung that the sole basis for the
June 26 preliminary injunction was the court’s finding that that
Samsung likely infringed” the design patent at issue in the
lawsuit, Koh wrote in today’s order. “The jury has found
otherwise. Thus, the sole basis for the June 26 preliminary
injunction no longer exists.”

Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to
comment on the court order.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, contended the ban
should remain in place because the jury found the Galaxy Tab
infringed other patents at issue in the case. Koh had refused to
act because the ban was on appeal before the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She said she might permit sales
if granted jurisdiction.

Permanent Ban

Apple seeks a court order permanently banning U.S. sales of
the Tab 10.1 and eight Samsung smartphone models. Hearings on
those requests are scheduled for December.

The world’s two biggest makers of high-end phones have
accused each other of copying designs and technology for mobile
devices and are fighting patent battles on four continents to
retain their dominance in the $219 billion global smartphone
market.

When Koh refused on July 2 to put the Tab 10.1 sales ban on
hold, she wrote that the injunction “will cause Samsung minimal
harm because it has other tablet products on the market.” Koh
also said then that Samsung conceded an injunction on the Tab
10.1 was of little consequence because its accounted for such a
small percentage of the company’s revenue.

“Their tablet sales aren’t big,” Seo Won Seok, a Seoul-based analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, said in a phone
interview. “But the situation has changed now. Samsung’s trying
to highlight factors that are differentiating their tablets from
Apple, and the response has been good. Regardless of the outcome
of this court ruling, their position in tablets will become
bigger.”

Note 10.1

Samsung in August began U.S. sales of the Galaxy Note 10.1
tablet, equipped with a pen -- a feature the iPad doesn’t offer.
As many as 4 million units of the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet
computer may be sold in a quarter, Seo said.

“We are pleased with the court’s action today, which
vindicates our position that there was no infringement of
Apple’s design patent and that an injunction was not called
for,” Samsung said in an e-mailed statement.

The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 11-cv-01846, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
(San Jose).